Revealed: Why Birmingham City's new signing hadn't kick a ball for seven months
Mar 7 2009 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
“Before coming here, I’d not touched a ball since July. Which was incredible really. But it’s hard motivating yourself every day to go to the gym on your own. I wanted to play.
“I think there has been a big fear factor with injuries for clubs who were looking at me.
“I damaged my hamstring last year four times. But I wasn’t involved with that manager, Kevin Keegan, and I was fit for the last three months of the season.
“People didn’t realise that, it was as if they thought I was really struggling.
“I did my hamstring four times purely through not being looked after, coming back too early.
“Unfortunately, people just saw that one picture – ‘ah, he’s injured again’ – and that fear factor is probably understandable from a club’s point of view when it came to investing.
“So it’s quite nice to have this opportunity now to prove I am okay. It’s been brilliant, coming here and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
The 32-year-old former Ireland international said he asked ex-Spurs team-mate Stephen Clemence for advice when boss Alex McLeish made his interest known.
“What did he say? Don’t go!” joked Carr.
“No, Clem had great years here and he spoke very highly of the club.
“For me, because Birmingham have been in and out of the Premier League, they’re always set to go up, and that’s what excites me about it.
“There are teams who are just happy to be in the Championship and go through the motions in mid-table. Birmingham aren’t.”
Carr said he would love to agree a long-term deal with Blues. But “that’s in my court, it’s up to me,” he admitted. “If I perform well enough, I’m sure there will be something for me.
“I want to stay. If I’m injury-free and still performing at an acceptable level to the manager, then it’s down to him and the club. I’ve only played three games though.”
His Blues debut, at Crystal Palace, produced a strange feeling – butterflies.
“It was like I was 16 again, just coming over [from Ireland], especially since my last game was in March. A full year out without playing a game, obviously you have those nerves, that you might pull something, and naturally there’s every chance you might do an injury. But it went OK.”
Carr said he was getting sharper and better.
“The gym work I did when I was back home obviously helped me a lot.
“I was doing other things in regards fitness so that gave me the base when I came here.
“Football training is obviously so different and in the Premier League the pace is a bit quicker but it’s slower in the Championship, so that’s helped settle.”
